Phenomenal spells of bowling from Odine Kirsten and Marcia Letsoalo helped Momentum Proteas topple Bangladesh women for 68 and take the ODI series 4-1 in Cox’s Bazar.
For the hosts, it was a dismal end to the series, with eight of their players making single-digit scores after they had won the toss and opted to bat. Kirsten with 10-5-10-4 and Letsoalo with 10-3-13-3 were the wreckers-in-chief. This bode well for South Africa, who go into the World Cup qualifiers next month in Sri Lanka aware that they can thrive in subcontinent conditions. The top four teams from that tournament will qualify for the World Cup in June 2017 and join Australia, England New Zealand and West Indies.
Bangladesh have a chance to make it as well, but they would hope for better batting performances than Friday’s. They lost two wickets in the fourth over and struggled to give any kind of shape to their innings. Although seven players in the line-up faced 20 balls or more – indicating they were getting set at the crease – none of them made a substantial contribution. Captain Rumana Ahmed spent 44 minutes at the crease and wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana put in over an hour’s work but combined they gave the team only 19 runs.
Momentum Proteas needed next to no time to complete the chase, winning with eight wickets and 240 balls to spare.
